After Dirty COW, the self-protecting kernel people will end up porting all Linux interfaces and core functionality (e.g. iptables) to Minix services. Then they can replace the VM manager and just pass over the PTE data to the new server when there's a bug, instead of rebooting everything. Systemd will be stripped as core functionality makes more sense as a kernel service than as kernel capabilities managed by a user program.

Porting the drivers and such to a microkernel architecture in full (L4, Minix, Hurd) would isolate parts of the code and require strict API adherence (and ABI, but ABI amounts to your IPC protocol). That reduces the scope of bugs, in the long run; and it minimizes short-term porting bugs. The cost is essentially a large amount of man-power.

So you have the likelihood of finding a lot of bugs, eliminating a lot of bugs in the process, and creating new bugs, all

That's because 2.6.40 became 3.0. If memory serves, it was just because Linus was getting tired of incrementing 2.6.n and there weren't any changes big enough to warrant a major version increase, so he just moved 2.6.40 to 3.0.

Looking at kernel version history [wikipedia.org] and assuming no big changes that would mean major/minor release number changes, kernel 4.9 would otherwise be somewhere around 2.6.69.

With distros maintaining their own kernels and backporting security fixes, how many people/organizations use the latest? Who are these users that anxiously await the latest kernel? Serious question, in all my years of using Linux I very rarely have downloaded the latest kernel and compiled it. I have done it pretty much out of interest only.

Arch users run the latest kernel. And all we have to do is a simple "# pacman -Syu" after it hits the repository. If you want to go out of your way to run old kernels (Debian, Fedora, etc), go for it. I prefer to be a little more current.

4.8 is a large step, however ive compiled a list of migrations for major distributionsUbuntu: apt-get install...wait...apt-cache update && apt-....isnt there a widget? ignore the update its probably already happened or systemd already did it...fedora: in the dark ages, 40 minutes ago to be precise, this old kernel called 4.8 was often said to be the next version. youre currently on Fedora 23, so in the next 11 minutes once youve upgraded to fedora 29 you'll be patched for the upcoming vulnerability in kernel 6.0. Slack: 2.4 booted just fine this morning and the coffee is already done so no time for compiling some new fangled bullshit from the "hyperlink" transport protocol. lets load up some gopher and call the cops, those kids are getting a little too overambitious with the pokemon GO at the park down the street.Gentoo:...hey did you see arch wrote a really good doc on upgrading? Arch: finish the doc for gentoo guys theyre almost done compiling userland.BSD: load up nethack, queue something up on MPD and lets wait for this whole cow fiasco in Linux land to blow over.

There is a widget for this. It's called Software Updater and it's found in System Tools in the menu. If you want to upgrade to a newer distribution version (eg: from 16.04 to 16.10) you need to select the appropriate option in Software & Updates.

Sure, if you want to turn a 15 second process that you understand into a 2 minute process that can be easily described to friends or family if they're interested in doing the same without a technical background.

It's anything but easy to describe where to make a series of clicks. It's easy to show someone how to update through a GUI, but you're stuck describing then you're better off describing a command line so that they only have to remember 3 words (sudo apt-get upgrade) instead of several paragraphs of vague attempts at describing their screen only to find out they have a different version where it all looks different.

Is Linus becoming irrelevant? I am getting Mozilla-like whiplash from these rapid changes.

I think most kernels are now maintained by distro teams. Recently, I discovered that some popular Linux distros won't even compile with Linus' kernel. So clearly, we have a lot more *nix OSes mascaraing as Linux... or maybe Linux community moved on past Linus?